


Sleepless Nights

by Val_Creative



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Alternate Universe - Canon, Antagonism, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Crazy Azula (Avatar), Dark Character, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Mental Instability, Moon Spirit Yue, Moonlight, Spirit World, Spirits, Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22581397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: The moon spirit visits Azula and warns her of darkness.
Relationships: Azula/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 92
Collections: Femflash February 2020





	Sleepless Nights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neosaiyanangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neosaiyanangel/gifts).



> I finally got to check out "The Search" comics (I desperately needed more Azula canon content) and got inspired. I never thought of this ship before so thank you to my giftee for letting me try it. Challenges are fun! And thank you to the mods of **Femflash February 2020** for allowing me to join! Any comments/thoughts are totally welcomed! :D

*

_My own mind…_

Azula twitches whole-bodied and mutters in her sleep. Her teeth flash pearly-luminescent in darkness, exposing and grinding.

_You've turned my own mind against me…_

Hate flares within Azula's chest, bright-burn, unending and spurred on by the. rage. Fear. Childish and loud. All of her shrilling grief. She's lost herself in an obsession with truth — Zuko's truth. His downfall and Azula's rise to power as the next Fire Lord.

_Mother…_

The world goes still.

Iridescent-white glow envelopes her.

Azula winces, teeth baring further, stirring underneath the blanket Zuko left covering her. She opens her eyes, going up on an elbow. One of the riffraff seems fast asleep, curled up with his boomerang, stinking like a wet possum-pigeon.

"Mother?" Azula whispers towards the glow, half-asleep. She frowns distrustfully.

It shapes itself, dimming, hovering above the Forgotten Valley.

A girl, perhaps several years older, comes before Azula's very eyes and descends until they're nearly face-to-face. Her bare, brown toes nearly touch the waters of the sacred pool. She's remarkable. Even Azula knows this with a single glance.

Her perfectly round face. Expressive, light blue eyes. She wears simple, flowing robes — a honeyed lavender, the color of Azula's favorite silk dress Father bestowed her after she beat his Commander. Her hair, piled elegantly and streaming out around her, gleams like pure moonlight.

"I'm afraid not," the girl tells Azula. Her voice flows as cool rain. "I was Yue. Now I am something else… something much more."

" _Great_." Azula sighs in irritation, folding her arms. "Another snow peasant."

Yue says nothing of the absurd insult. She drifts closer. "You haven't tempered the inferno of anguish in your soul. Or the darkness," Yue murmurs, observing her. Azula can almost feel the human-warm gust of air escaping her lips. "It's consuming you. Taking, and taking, and _taking_ until…"

Grimness hardens Yue's beautiful lips together.

"… you cannot withstand the _pyre_."

Despair lurches inside Azula's chest. No, no.

_No!_

"I won't stand here and listen to a nameless— _WEAK_ —spirit accuse someone like _ME_ of weakness. I am the _DAUGHTER_ of Fire Lord Ozai. My destiny will be _GLORIOUS_ —I will burn everything _DOWN_ and reshape this world into what I will it to be—I will _LIVE_ inside the flames and be born anew—" she hisses. Golden-yellow eyes narrow, glinting in malice. "You know _NOTHING_ —"

Yue's firm hand, glowing iridescent against her dark skin, holds to Azula's cheek.

"That is your father speaking. Not _you_."

"Unhand me," Azula snarls, wide-eyed, finding herself quivering so violently in the other girl's hands. She's warm. So _warm_. Moonlight was supposed to be ice-cold. Lifeless. Unforgiving. This doesn't feel right. She's being tricked.

Yue only gives her a pitying, lovely look, stroking her thumb to Azula's face,

"Let go of the pain," she insists quietly. "Let go of the darkness Ozai created within you and seek your own truth. Your destiny."

_"STOP—STOP IT RIGHT NOW—"_

"I'll be here, Azula."

" ** _UUGH_** —"

Azula screams herself back into consciousness, jolting upright. A gigantic torrent of bright blue fire erupts out of her mouth. She screams and rages and weeps furiously until it feels like every muscle inside Azula tremors. She won't allow Zuko to comfort her.

_Her own mind betrays her…_

_It must be…_

*


End file.
